Various industries are striving to find solutions to reduce energy bills despite increasing electricity rates. Demand Response (DR) is one such method. DR works to reduce the amount of power consumed during peak load times when power is most expensive. DR systems help utility companies avoid blackouts, defer construction of new generation/transmission facilities, and reduce costs. For consumers, DR systems help reduce electricity bills by reducing the amount of power consumed during the more costly peak time periods.
In many cases, office buildings are considered as a single consumer from the perspective of the utility company. The building owners typically provide a comprehensive electricity service to their tenants who pay a fixed fee for the administration and energy service. The electricity programs for office buildings may often include both energy consumption charges (e.g., the energy rate (cost per kilowatt hour)*power consumption) and demand charges (e.g., based on the peak load (in unit of kW) within a billing period). Thus, the more energy that is used during the peak hours, the greater the electricity bill is for the building.